RSS fellows among ‘most influential people in data’ 

A number of RSS fellows, including three RSS board members, have been listed in the latest Data IQ Top 100 Influential People in Data.

Johanna Hutchinson, our current honorary officer for staffing, came third on the list, while fellow RSS Council member, Jim Weatherall, was listed fourth. Another RSS trustee, Tom Smith, was also listed in the top 100.

Johanna Hutchinson (pictured left) has been director of data and data science at the Joint Biosecurity Centre, Department of Health and Social Care since September 2020, having been head of analysis of Covid-19 at DHSC since April 2020. JBC provides evidence-based, objective analysis, assessment and advice to inform local and national decision-making in response to Covid-19 outbreaks. Prior to that, Johanna was at HMRC leading the newly-formed central data team working with the Pensions Regulator. 

Jim Weatherall (pictured middle) is vice president of data science and AI at AstraZeneca’s R&D, a position he’s held since 2019. Before then, he lead AstraZeneca’s Advanced Analytics Centre, having joined the biomedical informatics team in 2007. Jim is an honorary reader in computer science at the University of Manchester, and vice chair of the RSS Data Science Section.

Tom Smith (pictured right) is managing director at the Data Science Campus, joining the Office for National Statistics in 2017. In May 2020, on secondment from ONS, Tom was founding director of data and data science at JBC before handing over to Johanna Hutchinson in September that year. He is also chair of the advisory board to the United Nations global platform for big data and official statistics. As well as being an RSS Council member, Tom sits on our Audit and Risk Committee, having previously been vice-chair of the Society’s Official Statistics Section.

Other RSS fellows in the list include Richard Pugh of Mango Solutions (also on our Data Science Section committee) and Simon Asplen-Taylor, data lead at Lloyd’s of London.

‘It’s great to see so many RSS fellows recognised as key influencers in the worlds of data and analytics,’ says RSS chief executive Stian Westlake.  ‘As a Society we recognise the close synergy between statistics and data science and can only see this relationship developing further over time.’

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